The Iowa Wild (12-19-2-0) scored three times in the first period to build a lead and got a 34-save shutout performance from goaltender Samuel Hlavaj to defeat the Ontario Reign (20-10-0-1) by a 5-0 score at Toyota Arena on Friday night.
In the first meeting of the teams since 2019, Iowa was led offensively by Graeme Clarke who scored twice and added an assist, while Liam Öhgren also helped set up three of the Wild’s goals.
The Wild took control of the game in the first and never let up, scoring three times in the opening frame. Caedan Bankier found the back of the net first with a shot from the right-wing boards that beat Ontario netminder Pheonix Copley at 2:48 of the first to make it 1-0 in favor of the visitors.
Clarke extended Iowa’s lead to 2-0 by backhanding a rebound into the goal at 10:28 of the first and then tacked on another tally on a similar play at 19:14, going to the net off a faceoff win in the Reign zone.
After the Wild went to the first intermission with a 3-0 advantage, Ontario made a change in between the pipes, bringing on Erik Portillo in place of Copley, who finished with 12 saves.
The Reign had more looks at Iowa’s net in the second, out-shooting the Wild 13-6 during the middle frame, but were unable to get a puck by Hlavaj and get any closer. Ontario had a four-minute double minor power play chance during the second but couldn’t capitalize.
A shot by Wild defender Carson Lambos found the back of the net with one minute to play before the second intermission to make it a 4-0 advantage for Iowa.
Adam Raska added on with the lone goal of the third at 7:42 of the final period. Ontario doubled up Iowa on the shot board in the third as well at 10-5, but Hlavaj was unphased by the opportunities and kept the puck in front of him.
The double minor penalty called on the Wild’s David Spacek was the lone infraction whistled in the contest and had Ontario end 0-for-2 on the man-advantage.
Portillo, who played the final 40 minutes of action, finished with nine saves on 11 shots by Iowa.
Postgame reactions from defender Luke Rowe and head coach Marco Sturm are below –
Luke Rowe
On tonight’s final score
The score is what it is. I don’t necessarily think it reflected all 60 minutes of our game. We had holes in our game today that they took advantage of. When your passing is not great and you’re getting stretched out in the D zone, you’re going to give a good skilled offensive group opportunities. They took advantage of it.
On the gameplay overall
Marco gives us a pretty hard time when our passing is off. It’s a big asset to have on a team, and it’s a priority if you want to win games. I think if there was ever a night that he could really lean into that, it’s tonight, for sure.
On what was said after the goalie change
I think it was just show some pride. Play with grit. Play hard and make them work for it. Play Reign hockey, what we have done for the past two and a half months, and that’s really it. Just do what we can do. We got away from it in the first period, and there were spurts where we got back to it, but all in all, we just weren’t there.
Marco Sturm
On his team’s loss
I think they (Iowa) deserved that game. Maybe not at the start, but other than that, they just played better than us. They were smarter than us. Their goaltending was better than our goalies. Their special teams were better than our special teams. As a team, they deserve the five nothing game so give them credit. We just didn’t play good enough.
On playing Iowa again on Sunday
Not everything was bad but I think our frustration took place and you could see it on that four minute power play. Nothing really happened there the four minutes. Those are the chances you can come back in those kind of games. The last period was almost over, but again, we just never really could fine tune our game. They just out skated us, out battled us, and we just got frustrated probably because we didn’t score early on, on good opportunities.
On not having Joe Hicketts in the lineup
We obviously miss his voice and his presence on the ice. There’s opportunity now for a lot of young guys. They always want to play, now they have the chance and they better grab it, because today was definitely not good enough.
The Reign wrap up their series with Iowa on Sunday afternoon with a 3 p.m. game inside Toyota Arena.
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